Navy veteran “Patriotic” Kenny Jary, 84, breaks into tears in Willernie, Minn., March 22, 2026, as he learns a GoFundMe page to help him with medical expenses has reached almost $150,000 in less than a day. (Patriotic Kenny Foundation)
Back in the fall of 2021, 79-year-old Navy veteran Kenny Jary was lamenting the demise of his decades-old mobility scooter.
It was too old to fix, too costly to replace and too essential to go without.
His bad luck, however, quickly turned around as enough donations flooded into a GoFundMe page to not only buy a new scooter but also to fund a foundation to provide free scooters for other veterans in need.
Today, Jary, who lives in a small Minnesota town near St. Paul, is coping with terminal lung cancer and donors have once again flocked to a GoFundMe page intended to help him with medical, hospice and funeral expenses.
As of Wednesday, donors had contributed almost $319,000 to the fund called Help Patriotic Kenny Receive the Care He Deserves.
Any funds not used for his care will be transferred to the Patriotic Kenny Foundation to purchase mobility scooters, according to an online post by Amanda Kline, Jary’s friend and neighbor who launched both donation drives.
Kline, who is vice president and executive director of the foundation, declined to be interviewed for this article, referring Stars and Stripes to information posted on Jary’s social media accounts.
The foundation’s most recent federal income tax return indicates it spent $73,926 to provide 49 free scooters to veterans in 2024.
“At 84 years old, Kenny is a Navy veteran who has built a community of millions on social media and in person simply by being kind, grateful, and unapologetically positive,” Kline wrote on the most recent GoFundMe page.
“Whether he is rolling through town on his red scooter covered in American flags or making strangers laugh online, his mission has always been the same: make people smile, help others, and leave the world better than he found it.”
Jary, who served aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Okinawa as a helicopter refueler in the early 1960s, has about 3 million followers — which he calls “fans” — on TikTok and almost a million on Instagram.
In a video posted last week, Jary, seated on a scooter, breaks down in tears as Kline tells him donors had contributed $147,000 within 20 hours of the GoFundMe page launching.
Jary was nonchalant late last month when breaking the news of his cancer diagnosis in an online video.
“So, that’s the way it goes,” he said. “We can’t live forever!”
Kline said in an online post that Jary had Stage 4 metastatic lung cancer that has spread to his lymph nodes and spine. He has long suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the condition that limited his ability to walk and necessitated use of the scooter.
“His oxygen levels fluctuate, his strength is limited, and he now requires significant daily support,” Kline wrote.
“His greatest wish is simple. He wants to stay at home, surrounded by the people he loves, not machines and hospital walls.”
An oncologist has told him that without treatment he can expect to live “several weeks to several months,” according to a Q&A posted on Jary’s Instagram account.
Jary wants to undergo treatment, and he is meeting with oncologists in the Twin Cities and talking with providers at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, the post states.
VA health care seems not to be a viable option because the earliest appointment within a three-hour distance of his home is June 24, the post states.
According to Kline, Jary has one simple “bucket list” wish before his time is up: a train ride.
“We need to figure out what oxygen support looks like on a train, but we will do everything we can to make this happen, yes,” she wrote on Instagram.
